What’s Your Story?

We all love to tell our story. There’s even a popular country song by Toby Keith that admits,

“I wanna talk about me, wanna talk about I, wanna talk about number one, Oh my, me, my, what I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see…”

People love to talk about themselves, and tell their own stories. But do others enjoy hearing our stories as much as we love telling them? What’s more, what are the stories we tell ourselves, and are they different from the versions others tell about us? Take a moment right now and consider what stories you tell yourself about yourself?

The stories we tell ourselves affect our daily success, or lack thereof. As Success publisher Darren Hardy says, “our daily practices have a compound effect on our future outcome.” It isn’t just what you do today that matters, or what choices you make today that matters, it’s the story you tell yourself about what you did today that matters. So what’s your story?

Today the practice of visualization is no longer just a feel good theory but is a proven, and well used discipline that professional athletes and performers use daily to achieve uber-success. The concept is fairly straight forward. You picture yourself achieving what you want to achieve before you start. For example, let’s say that you are a bowler and want to bowl a strike, knocking down all ten pins with one throw of the ball. You stand in position, close your eyes, and imagine each step of the approach. You see the ball being released from your hand in the perfect position, right on the mark. You see it strike just on the right of the headpin, and watch all ten pins tumble to the deck. Then you start your actual approach with a successful strike already mapped clearly in your mind.

That’s exactly like telling your story, but backwards, from the end rather than the beginning. You begin, with the end in mind. You imagine the end of your life, or the end of your career, or the end of your project, or the end of your day. What story do you want to tell about how it all ended? What story do you want others to tell about you in the end? And right before that last moment of final victory, what happened then? Try to picture that next to the last step clearly in your mind. And the moment before that one, what happened? Keep backing through your success story until you get to right now. This will help you see each step that has to be taken from here going forward to get to the successful victory you desire. Describe your greatest achievement. But start from the end!

Ask your lifecoach today to help you map out your success story, beginning with the end in mind.